


Surrender

by polemisti



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: A Court of Wings and Ruin Spoilers, Book 3: A Court of Wings and Ruin, Gen, the battle against hybern in the summer court, the story of a hybern soldier who surrendered
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:00:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26531029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polemisti/pseuds/polemisti
Summary: Surrendering was the easiest thing she had ever done, begging for her life even easier. There was no part of her which was clean as she sank into the bloody mud. Summer court soldiers paced through the lines of them, blades out and pointed towards the surrendered soldier’s necks.This was her first battle. It was also her last.orA hybern soldier surrenders in the attack against the summer court, and is taken in for questioning. Quick read.
Kudos: 9





	Surrender

Surrendering was the easiest thing she had ever done, begging for her life even easier. There was no part of her which was clean as she sank into the bloody mud. Summer court soldiers paced through the lines of them, blades out and pointed towards the surrendered soldier’s necks.

_ Usually, _ she told herself,  _ you didn’t make eye contact with the leader of your enemy when you were begging for your life _ . But she met his eyes, Tarquin of the Summer Court, for just a moment.

_ I have information,  _ she mouthed. His face was blank as he turned away. Only then did she turn her gaze to the bloody mud. She would die here. Not in battle, not the death of a hero, but on her knees surrounded by death and anger.

_ Is that all war is? Death and anger? You’re a bit late in life to be having thoughts like this.  _

This was her first battle.

It was also her last.

A collar gripped the back of her armor and yanked her backwards, dragging her through the mud. She just fell limp at the grip. Resisting would just kill her faster.

They threw her in a dark tent and reached for the buckles of her armor.

_ No,  _ **_no_ ** _. _ She thrashed and fought and bit, going for a blade on her side.  _ Not this. I’d rather die than face this. _

“Prince Varian, she’s thrashing.”

“I’m aware,” a dry voice responded.

Only a moment had passed before she slumped to the floor, boneless.

* * *

When she woke, her armor was discarded across the tent. Her underclothes however, a simple tunic and pants, remained. She was tied to a chair, weaponless.

“What’s your rank?” A voice behind her, cold and disinterested.

“Sergeant.”  _ Or it was before I betrayed my country by not falling in its battle. _

“Your squadron?”

“Dead.”

The man offered no condolences. The thought that he would almost made her bark a laugh.

“Where is the rest of Hybern’s army?”

“I don’t know.”

She felt a sharp pain in her thigh. The man had come up close behind her, had dragged his dagger across her leg and drawn blood.

“If you don’t  _ know _ , it would have been smarter to have died out there than in here.”

She would die either way, she realized. She could not fight for them; her ankle had snapped in the battle and ribs had broken. She didn’t feel it yet, but she would, soon, as the adrenaline rushed out of her system. They would not waste a healer on an enemy, and even if they did, they would never trust her to fight alongside them. The seven court would either kill her here for being a Hybern soldier, or, assuming she escaped somehow, Hybern would kill her for betraying its ranks, for  _ surrendering _ .

The man’s voice behind her was almost kind as he asked “What can you tell me?”

“We came up north as a distraction.” She had heard it from a general who had gotten hammered the night before. “We were destined to lose from the start.”

“Why?” The man’s voice was steel once more.

“I don’t know.”

“What else?”

“I don’t—I don’t—” All the information she had was on men and women who were dead in the mud. She wasn’t a general, she had  _ nothing _ . She should’ve died, she should never have made eye contact with the high lord. She—

The man’s quiet huff behind her cut through her thoughts like the shortsword she would never see again.

“I’ll make it quick, girl. Your body won’t be abused.”

A quiet calm fell over the woman.

“Promise?” she asked, and she knew her voice wavered like a child’s. There were tears streaming down her face, cutting through the drying blood of her friends, her enemies,  _ herself _ .

“I promise.”

And then it was over.

**Author's Note:**

> this was just rattling around in my head since reading about Tarquin and the surrendered Hybern soldiers and I needed like 20 minutes to write it all out.


End file.
